Group raises concern about child care ministries

The fast-growing business of child care ministries is drawing some concern about child safety and relatively light regulations.\nThe ministries, which are unlicensed and required to pass only fire, building and sanitation rules, started outnumbering licensed child care centers in Indiana for the first time three years ago. Today there are 607 licensed centers and 665 child care ministries.\nChild care ministries maintain the industry’s only growth, largely because of an influx of federal child care dollars that can go to religious and nonreligious groups, state officials say.\nLicensed child care centers must follow 60 pages of rules, but ministries only have to abide by four.\nRep. Win Moses, D-Fort Wayne, called the minimal rules for child care ministries an “unequal safety factor” for children.\n“We don’t even know what goes on there, which is dangerous,” he said.\nSince May 2006, 60 ministries and 85 licensed centers have had abuse or neglect complaints, according to the state Bureau of Child Care. Until a new law started last July, Child Protective Services was prevented from investigating complaints at ministries.\nThe state used to require ministries to be inspected twice as often as centers. But that changed last year, when inspectors found it impossible to keep up with the growing number of ministries.\n“But one of the other reasons was the majority of the ministries fare pretty well on their inspections,” said Ken Hudson, a child care manager for the Bureau of Child Care. “So, the feeling was maybe we don’t need to go back as many as four times a year plus.”\nRep. Phil Hinkle, R-Indianapolis, said he is troubled with safety concerns raised by a small number of “paper churches” that the state has little authority to address. He estimates that 4 percent of child care ministries are in it solely for the money.\n“It is a very minute part of the child care system,” he said.\nSome ministries push beyond state requirements to attract and keep business. The Fort Wayne Academy aims to have its children reading on a first-grade level before kindergarten.\n“If we didn’t have that curriculum, we could lose our parents,” said Pastor Ronald Rutledge. “And that’s one of the main reasons why parents come to the Fort Wayne Academy, because they know they’re going to get a great education for their children.”\nEric Miller, head of the conservative lobbying group Advance America, said he helped write 1979 legislation that requires the fire and sanitary inspections of child care ministries. He opposes any “unnecessary restrictions” placed on them.\n“Our concern is that churches that have had these ministries for decades should continue to be free to hire who they want to hire and teach what they want to teach,” said Miller, a former Republican gubernatorial candidate. “And the legislature has recognized that since the passage of the first bill in 1979.”\nBut Hinkle believes more protections are needed.\n“We’re talking about the welfare of our children,” Hinkle said.